Battle Royale

Takako checked her supplied wristwatch. It was 1:20 p.m. She usually wore bracelets so she never wore a watch, but she couldn't afford that luxury now. Then she touched her collar. "If you try to pry it loose it will explode." It was suffocating—not only the way it dug into her neck, but its mere presence. The chain of her pendant lightly tapped against the band.

Takako decided to ignore it and gripped her ice pick (what good was this weapon though?) with her left hand. With her right she grabbed some pebbles and tossed them out in front of her to her left and right. They made a rustling sound in the grove. She waited for a while. No response. She moved forward. She took a deep breath, ready to run up the open ground between the bushes.

Suddenly she heard a rustling sound. Someone's head popped out of the bushes, approximately ten meters to her left. She could see the back of his coat and the back of his head. Its hair was slightly disheveled but still smooth. His head turned left and right checking the area.

Takako froze. She was in trouble. It was a guy. Guys were trouble. She had no particular reason to think so, but she had a hunch anyone besides Hiroki Sugimura was trouble. And she could immediately tell this guy was not him.

Takako held her breath and slowly stepped back into the thicket behind her. She knew this would happen, but that didn't stop her from trembling.

Suddenly the boy turned around. Their eyes met. The face, which had an expression of utter astonishment, belonged to Kazushi Niida (Male Student No. 16).

Oh man, why did I have to bump into this jerk? What mattered now was that she was totally exposed and how dangerous that was. She turned around and started running back the way she came.

"Wait!"

She heard Kazushi's voice. The sound of him waded through the thicket, coming after her. "Wait!" Now he was shouting. "Wait!" Ugh—What an idiot—

Takako hesitated for a few moments and then stopped. She looked back. If Kazushi had a gun and wanted to shoot her he'd have done that by now. More troubling was his shouting. It endangered not only his life but hers. Just as it was moments ago there didn't seem to be anyone in the area.

Slowing down, Kazushi descended the slope.

Takako realized Kazushi held a rifle loaded with an arrow in his right hand. It wasn't pointed at Takako right now—but if it was, could she dodge it and run away? Should she have stopped?

No. Takako reassured herself, she'd done the right thing. Kazushi Niida was a forward on the soccer team. Top athletes like him were as fast if not faster than track runners. Even though Takako was a star track runner, he'd have eventually caught up with her.

Either way it was too late.

Kazushi stopped several meters away from her. He had wide shoulders and was relatively tall and well built. His smooth hair was long, which was the current fashion with soccer players, but now it was disheveled, as if he'd been playing in a close match that had gone into overtime. A smile emerged on his face, which was pretty good looking except for his bad teeth.

What does he want? Takako thought as he observed his face.

He might not have any harmful intentions. He might actually be thinking he finally found someone he could trust.

But Takako didn't have a very good impression of Kazushi Niida. To put it bluntly, she couldn't stand his kind of chumminess. She also couldn't stand his arrogance. They'd been classmates ever since their first year in junior high. (Hiroki became her classmate in second-year.) Without putting much effort into them, Kazushi was above average in grades and sports, but in spite of that—or maybe it had nothing to do with that—his immaturity really stuck out. He tried to impress others, and when he'd screw up he'd come up with some lame-ass excuse. Furthermore, and this was really stupid, but when they were first-year students, there were rumors that she and Kazushi were going out. (Junior high kids don't have anything better to do. Well, let them say what they want.) Every time the rumors got going again he'd go to her desk and touch her on the shoulder (how dare he) and tell her, "There's a rumor floating around about us." Takako would turn away and brush his hand off with the reply, "Oh, I'm so honored." She let it slide, scoffing at him on the inside ("Go away you little brat. You've got some nerve"), but now...she wasn't in the position to do the same thing.

Takako spoke cautiously. She had to get away from him as quickly as possible. That's what it came down to. "Don't shout, you idiot!"

"I'm sorry," Kazushi answered. "But you were the one who took off."

Takako didn't mess around with her response. Get to the point, cut to the chase. Her best features. "The fact is, I don't want to be with you." She looked at Kazushi and managed to shrug her tense shoulders. Kazushi's grimaced. "Why?"

Because you act like you're such a goody-goody, she thought.